Nursing (in the form of breast feeding) can be unpleasant for some women, as they are not comfortable exposing their breasts, and quite often conventional nursing garment breast cups do not provide the breasts with the same support as a traditional brassiere.
However, nursing while wearing a traditional brassiere requires removal or release of the brassiere which is difficult while at the same time holding a child, and while nursing the child, the other breast is not comfortably supported.
Several companies provide nursing brassieres designed to expose one breast at the time, hence still supporting both breasts when nursing. These nursing brassieres are often provided with clasps above the cups, which are easily operated with one hand, hence making it possible to hold the child when releasing/fastening the outer cup.
Furthermore, some of these nursing brassieres are seamless or substantially seamless, which is a great advantage, as the seams of brassieres sewn from numerous different pieces of fabric may irritate the often tense and sore breasts of nursing women.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,168 discloses a substantially seamless brassiere made from a circular knitted fabric tube, which brassiere can be made of a single layer or of a double layered fabric.
The length of the shoulder straps may be adjustable allowing the woman to pull the brassiere cup over or under the breast, to pull the shoulder strap off the shoulder or to loosen the brassiere to expose a breast. However, the brassiere cannot open in front, and the outer cup can not be released and pulled down, thus it is not suitable nor intended for nursing purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,041 discloses a substantially seamless nursing brassiere, which is made from a circular knitted fabric tube. The nursing brassiere is provided with a front portion with two cups, wherein a center portion is arranged between the two cups, a back portion, two side portions connecting the front and the back portion, a band fitting snugly around the chest is positioned under the breasts and a pair of shoulder straps extending from the back portion and which shoulder straps are connected to each of the front portion cups, and the cups are completely or partly formed of a double layered fabric.
Both types of seamless brassieres are made from a circular knitted fabric tube. As explained in U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,041 the substantially seamless brassiere described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,168 is not suitable for use as a nursing brassiere.
The seamless nursing brassieres described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,041 are made from a circular knitted fabric tube, where a knitted loop is used for providing a stretchable two-ply band (a closed loop), which is arranged for fitting snugly around and beneath the chest, and the breast cup areas are formed from two body-encircling tube portions, forming respectively an inner cup and a releasable outer cup.
The drawback of all the mentioned nursing brassieres is that while nursing, the woman has to either lift up her clothes up (e.g. a T-shirt), pull them down (e.g. a stretchy camisole) or open them (e.g. a shirt), in order to release the outer cup while breast-feeding a baby.
This in turn exposes either the woman's belly or most of her upper body while nursing, which many women are not comfortable with, as it makes them feel indecent or cold.
Garments such as dresses or body stockings, which can not be opened in the breast area or be removed from the top, but have to be pulled up over the breast area for nursing, can hardly be worn, as the woman would basically end up exposing most of her lower body while nursing.
Thus, it would be advantageous to make a seamless nursing garment with the drop cup feature as a fuller garment, e.g. a vest, a tank top, a camisole, a chemise, a body stocking or a dress, that could be used alone or under clothes, which in turn would not expose the woman's belly when nursing, but cover her body, apart from the exposed nipple.
Such a garment is not described in either U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,041 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,168, nor is it possible to make use of the technique described in said patent, as no additional tube sections or tube ends are available to produce a body-encircling portion extending from the brassiere chest band and downwards seamlessly, as both tube sections or ends are bent upwards to form the inner and outer cup.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,855,029 a nursing garment in the form of a camisole is described consisting of a minimum three-layer breast cup construction sewn from a series of cut out fabric parts, that are sewn together leaving the nursing mother with numerous seams sewn in elastic bands around her chest etc, which can be uncomfortable. No reference is made to seamless garments or seamless technology in U.S. Pat. No. 6,855,029.